Yes on amazon... tuck one end under headrest then fix to back of seat with VelcroOooh they look quite tidy. Where did you get them from? (My cream seats also have seatbelt scuffs)
EDIT: Found them on Amazon
What have you done to your E89 today
- Thread starter Bombur
- Start date
Finally tackled all the creaks, rattles, and josseling for the roof when it's up. It has been plaguing me for quite awhile on the rough roads.
Went through all the touchpoints with some felt tape, for both the surface of contact and the roller for the front latch.
Greased up with Molykote 111 the roof-holder mechanism.
Today's drive to work was so peaceful it was wonderful.
Also washed the Alfa and took that out for ice cream with my nephew and niece
Went through all the touchpoints with some felt tape, for both the surface of contact and the roller for the front latch.
Greased up with Molykote 111 the roof-holder mechanism.
Today's drive to work was so peaceful it was wonderful.
Also washed the Alfa and took that out for ice cream with my nephew and niece
Attachments
Scottish Borders
To err is human. To err too often is the mark of a muppet.
Corrected four Öhlins damper settings I'd got comprehensively wrong. After the spring and tyre change I went round the car with the R&T adjuster and came away with 9/7 front and 7/9 rear — clicks out from full hard, so lower is firmer. Nothing matched side to side on either axle, and one corner still sitting on the number that suited the old spring rates. Quite how, I'm not sure. Stop-start jobs and the "now what was I doing" moment, mostly. I then drove it for weeks and thought it rode better than it has in six years.
Like so many parts of this journey, I didn't end up where I thought I was going to be. The changes have come in overlapping windows — Continental SportContact 7s in 235/40 and 275/35, up from 235/35 and 275/30, so roughly 12mm more sidewall at the front and 14mm at the rear; Öhlins springs up from the stock 60/70 N/mm to 80/96; H&R rear anti-roll bar on maximum; and then the damping. Which one bought the ride is anyone's guess. Four mismatched dampers didn't spoil it though, so my money is on the sidewall and the springs doing the coarse work, with the clicks as fine tuning.
Now 7/7 front, 5/5 rear — a step firmer at both ends, more so at the back. Four days in the Dales with a full boot and a passenger is a decent load case and a decent variety of surface. The rears are easy to reach if it's wrong. The fronts stay where they are unless compression is genuinely unpleasant.
Corrected four Öhlins damper settings I'd got comprehensively wrong. After the spring and tyre change I went round the car with the R&T adjuster and came away with 9/7 front and 7/9 rear — clicks out from full hard, so lower is firmer. Nothing matched side to side on either axle, and one corner still sitting on the number that suited the old spring rates. Quite how, I'm not sure. Stop-start jobs and the "now what was I doing" moment, mostly. I then drove it for weeks and thought it rode better than it has in six years.
Like so many parts of this journey, I didn't end up where I thought I was going to be. The changes have come in overlapping windows — Continental SportContact 7s in 235/40 and 275/35, up from 235/35 and 275/30, so roughly 12mm more sidewall at the front and 14mm at the rear; Öhlins springs up from the stock 60/70 N/mm to 80/96; H&R rear anti-roll bar on maximum; and then the damping. Which one bought the ride is anyone's guess. Four mismatched dampers didn't spoil it though, so my money is on the sidewall and the springs doing the coarse work, with the clicks as fine tuning.
Now 7/7 front, 5/5 rear — a step firmer at both ends, more so at the back. Four days in the Dales with a full boot and a passenger is a decent load case and a decent variety of surface. The rears are easy to reach if it's wrong. The fronts stay where they are unless compression is genuinely unpleasant.
Girona
Hi everyone!
I recently installed a BlueMusic Bluetooth adapter in my 2014 BMW Z4 E89 and thought some of you might find it useful.
The installation is completely plug & play:
The video is in Spanish, but YouTube's automatic English subtitles work surprisingly well.
I'm also planning to share more DIY projects for the E89. My next project will be restoring my Kansas Walnut leather driver's seat to bring it back as close as possible to its original factory condition. I'll make sure to share the process here as well.
Looking forward to learning from everyone else's projects too!
I recently installed a BlueMusic Bluetooth adapter in my 2014 BMW Z4 E89 and thought some of you might find it useful.
The installation is completely plug & play:
- No wire cutting
- No coding
- Keeps the original BMW radio
- Steering wheel controls continue to work for track selection and volume
The video is in Spanish, but YouTube's automatic English subtitles work surprisingly well.
I'm also planning to share more DIY projects for the E89. My next project will be restoring my Kansas Walnut leather driver's seat to bring it back as close as possible to its original factory condition. I'll make sure to share the process here as well.
Looking forward to learning from everyone else's projects too!
Edinburgh
Just replaced the front right pressure lip, the original one was literally hanging on for dear life.
One of the bolts were missing, so ordered new one. Annoyingly, on closer inspection the bolt had actually sheared off in the spring clip, which of course I don’t have!
Cable tie for the time being, feels solid but will grab some spring clips to fix properly.
One of the bolts were missing, so ordered new one. Annoyingly, on closer inspection the bolt had actually sheared off in the spring clip, which of course I don’t have!
Cable tie for the time being, feels solid but will grab some spring clips to fix properly.
Did you ever get the dye for your seats?
I was getting more and more annoyed with the sticky greasy feel of the main volume knob on the idrive and there was a stickiness to part of my beloved Royal steering wheel remover with Audi-esque bottom chop.
God only knows what human based deposits had accumulated on that little knob over time..I plead guilty to mayo and other food based contaminants on the steering wheel.
Conventional cleaning products seems to barely touch the issue.
Concerned about using more powerful astringent solvents I alighted on iso propyl alcohol.
This is strong enough to to remove the grease / organic matter but not damaging to either the leather or plastics.
It took several applications with a fibre cloth to fully remove the stickiness…about 9-10 applications…
Did the gear lever / gaiter which was Royal modified too..
Then used some gentle leather food to finish it off..nice result…
Carried on around the cabin with the leather good..
God only knows what human based deposits had accumulated on that little knob over time..I plead guilty to mayo and other food based contaminants on the steering wheel.
Conventional cleaning products seems to barely touch the issue.
Concerned about using more powerful astringent solvents I alighted on iso propyl alcohol.
This is strong enough to to remove the grease / organic matter but not damaging to either the leather or plastics.
It took several applications with a fibre cloth to fully remove the stickiness…about 9-10 applications…
Did the gear lever / gaiter which was Royal modified too..
Then used some gentle leather food to finish it off..nice result…
Carried on around the cabin with the leather good..
If you want a vacation in Europe you can come and spend a few days meditating in the Scottish Borders ! -
Had an issue with water flow to the windscreen washer jets. I could still hear the pump so took a look in the washer bottle.
The liquid was black! Don’t know if the previous owner had just used water and it was some sort of algae build up, but the result was the inside of the reservoir was filthy and filter was completely clogged up.
Drained it with my wet vac, blasted with hose gun, and repeated about 7 times.
Inside now nice and clean, filter clear and washer jets working great.
Really don’t know how it was so dirty inside.
The liquid was black! Don’t know if the previous owner had just used water and it was some sort of algae build up, but the result was the inside of the reservoir was filthy and filter was completely clogged up.
Drained it with my wet vac, blasted with hose gun, and repeated about 7 times.
Inside now nice and clean, filter clear and washer jets working great.
Really don’t know how it was so dirty inside.
North West Surrey
Which brand? Happy to use it if it saves me doing that job again!
I don't think it matters, it seems to be mixing brands that creates algae. I've just been using Prestone from Tecos!
Ah apologies, I mistook same brand for a specific brand. Noted though, I’ll avoid mixing in future.
So the eternal question of what is the E89 rear suspension motion ratio has now been answered…
In almost all car suspension systems the spring rate of the front and rear springs do not equate to the spring rate that the you feel and the wheel sees…
With a coil over front it’s close but the angle of the strut means it’s not quite 1..on the rear on an E89 or E85 the spring is way inboard of the hub.
The E85 motion ratio..has been documented ..and I used this rate for my basic suspension calculations ..however it didn’t seem quite correct..do today…I did the full measurement…how much does the wheel travel relative to how much does the spring move…and we have the results…
A nice diagram explains this…
Once you have both the spring rate of the spring AND the motion ratio you can work out the effective spring rate and the ride frequency front and rear…
I’ll leave it there for now…
In almost all car suspension systems the spring rate of the front and rear springs do not equate to the spring rate that the you feel and the wheel sees…
With a coil over front it’s close but the angle of the strut means it’s not quite 1..on the rear on an E89 or E85 the spring is way inboard of the hub.
The E85 motion ratio..has been documented ..and I used this rate for my basic suspension calculations ..however it didn’t seem quite correct..do today…I did the full measurement…how much does the wheel travel relative to how much does the spring move…and we have the results…
A nice diagram explains this…
Once you have both the spring rate of the spring AND the motion ratio you can work out the effective spring rate and the ride frequency front and rear…
I’ll leave it there for now…
Get those arches cleaned
If you had to drive your car about 400 yds up a dirt track to get to your garage you’d have some empathy!